I think the qualifier “a reasonable number of active Forum participants” in my comment is doing some real work and wouldn’t be met if you asked “everyone [you] have ever been friendly with”—even if we add in an implied limitation to current Forum participants.
Let’s take a case in which I invited my hypothetical friends Abel, Baker, and Charlie to participate in a thread that was critical of me. I think there is value in having some people who know the person well who is subject to the controversy present in the conversation. An invitation increases the likelihood of having those voices present; if the base rate of people even seeing the post is 5-10% per your example above, there’s a good chance that zero of the ten community members best situated to provide a favorable perspective on the subject will even see the post—much less decide to comment.
On the whole, I think the presence of Abel, Baker, and Charlie in the comments would be net positive. I’m sure it is exhausting to feel the need to respond to a post that is critical of you and all the comments thereunto, and asking for help can be appropriate. Even if all accept, it’s only three voices, and the community is capable of evaluating the substance of what they say and reacting accordingly. In contrast, with votes there is no ability to evaluate whether the votes are based on solid reasoning or instead represent a voter’s predisposition toward the subject of the post.
I see the point that Abel, Baker, and Charlie could say that I asked them to comment. However, I think they should be part of the conversation, and expecting them to flag themselves gives the impression that they are true brigadiers. People have all sorts of incentives and motivations for posting, and I’m not convinced this motivation should be singled out for per se special disfavor.
In this particular case, most active Forum participants would have seen the post given the prominence of the Owen situation and the Time article. And participation rates are likely to be high due for various reasons. So I see concerns about a few “recruited” members of the community potentially upsetting the balance as less pressing than in the hypothetical case in which the post was critical of you.
Admittedly, I have seen some possible evidence of strategic voting here (e.g., a strong downvote on a post with lots more agrees than disagrees is a yellow flag for me, certain posts got a good bit of karma quickly and were then voted down to near-zero or even negative karma). But that would likely be coming from people who are pretty active on the Forum anyway (as evidenced by their powerful strongvotes), so the nexus between “recruitment” and that strategic voting is doubtful to me.
I think the qualifier “a reasonable number of active Forum participants” in my comment is doing some real work and wouldn’t be met if you asked “everyone [you] have ever been friendly with”—even if we add in an implied limitation to current Forum participants.
Let’s take a case in which I invited my hypothetical friends Abel, Baker, and Charlie to participate in a thread that was critical of me. I think there is value in having some people who know the person well who is subject to the controversy present in the conversation. An invitation increases the likelihood of having those voices present; if the base rate of people even seeing the post is 5-10% per your example above, there’s a good chance that zero of the ten community members best situated to provide a favorable perspective on the subject will even see the post—much less decide to comment.
On the whole, I think the presence of Abel, Baker, and Charlie in the comments would be net positive. I’m sure it is exhausting to feel the need to respond to a post that is critical of you and all the comments thereunto, and asking for help can be appropriate. Even if all accept, it’s only three voices, and the community is capable of evaluating the substance of what they say and reacting accordingly. In contrast, with votes there is no ability to evaluate whether the votes are based on solid reasoning or instead represent a voter’s predisposition toward the subject of the post.
I see the point that Abel, Baker, and Charlie could say that I asked them to comment. However, I think they should be part of the conversation, and expecting them to flag themselves gives the impression that they are true brigadiers. People have all sorts of incentives and motivations for posting, and I’m not convinced this motivation should be singled out for per se special disfavor.
In this particular case, most active Forum participants would have seen the post given the prominence of the Owen situation and the Time article. And participation rates are likely to be high due for various reasons. So I see concerns about a few “recruited” members of the community potentially upsetting the balance as less pressing than in the hypothetical case in which the post was critical of you.
Admittedly, I have seen some possible evidence of strategic voting here (e.g., a strong downvote on a post with lots more agrees than disagrees is a yellow flag for me, certain posts got a good bit of karma quickly and were then voted down to near-zero or even negative karma). But that would likely be coming from people who are pretty active on the Forum anyway (as evidenced by their powerful strongvotes), so the nexus between “recruitment” and that strategic voting is doubtful to me.